Lance Hammer

BlueCat Discovery • Finalist (2004)

Lance Hammer was a BlueCat Finalist with his script An Imperfect Cell. Hammer went on to write and direct the critical indie darling Ballast, which had its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival. Hammer won a Directing Award at the festival. The film was nominated for six Independent Spirit Awards, including Best First Screenplay, Best Director, and Best Feature. Roger Ebert, giving the film four out of four stars, wrote, “Ballast inexorably grows and deepens and gathers power and absorbs us. I always say I hardly ever cry at sad films, but I sometimes do, just a little, at films about good people.” Hammer clinched the Best Director award from the Gotham Independent Film Awards.

Notables

BlueCat Discovery • Success Stories (1998 - Present)

Our Winners and Finalists have been signed by major talent agencies like UTA, CAA and WME, sold their work to studios like Warner Bros., Paramount and Universal, and won major awards at the Sundance, Berlin and Tribeca Film Festivals, all after being discovered by or winning BlueCat.

Check out some of our notable Winners and Finalists in the slideshow and a more thorough list of our alumni below!

Aaron Guzikowski

BlueCat Discovery • Finalist (2005)

Aaron Guzikowski became a BlueCat finalist for his screenplay Panacea. Since becoming a BlueCat finalist, Guzikowski has written several major motion pictures. Guzikowski has written film Prisoners, directed by acclaimed director Denis Villeneuve and starring Hugh Jackman, Jake Gyllenhaal, and Viola Davis. Guzikowski also wrote Contraband, starring Mark Wahlberg, Giovanni Ribisi, and Kate Beckinsale. Additionally, Guzikowski has written the forthcoming remake of the film Papillion, starring Charlie Hunnam and Rami Malek, to be released by Bleeker Street Media. Guzikowski has also had success in television and created the Amazon series The Red Road. Guzikowski is repped by Verve and Madhouse Entertainment.

Young Il Kim

BlueCat Discovery • Winner (2006)

Young Il Kim won the BlueCat Screenplay Competition with his script Hyung’s Overture. Since winning BlueCat his screenplay Rodham, based on the early life of Hillary Clinton, topped the Blacklist. Presently, he is a staff writer on the Showtime television series Billions. Kim is represented by UTA.

Ana Lily Amirpour

BlueCat Discovery • Grand Prize (2007)

Ana Lily Amirpour was a Grand Prize Winner of BlueCat. Since winning the competition with her screenplay The Stones, Amirpour has written and directed the feature film A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, played numerous festivals across the globe, and was nominated for three Independent Spirit Awards, including Best First Feature. Additionally, Amirpour was nominated for the “Someone to Watch” Award. Amirpour’s next film, The Bad Batch, starring Jason Momoa, Giovanni Ribisi, and Keanu Reeves, premiered at the Venice Film Festival and was awarded a Special Jury Prize. Amirpour is represented by CAA.

Paras Borgohain

BlueCat Discovery • Roshan Award (2016)

Paras Borgohain won the Roshon Award (Best Feature Screenplay from India) in 2016 with his screenplay Deepest, Darkest or How Not to Lie. Currently, he writes for the Indian Sesame Street show. Since winning BlueCat, he has signed writing contracts for two animated shows from Turner, including the popular Roll No.21.

Kateland Brown

BlueCat Discovery • Finalist (2014)

Kateland Brown became a BlueCat finalist for her screenplay Hambone. Since becoming a BlueCat finalist, Brown has found success writing for television. She is currently a staff writer for the Freeform seriesFamous in Love, starring Bella Thorne. She has previously written episodes of the hit ABC Family show Pretty Little Liars.

Michael Quintana

We Lost Grace • Finalist (2013)

Since becoming a Finalist, Michael Quintana graduated in May 2015 with an MFA in Creative Writing from San Jose State University and won 1st place in the CSU Media Arts Festival for a feature script called “White Rabbit.” Quintana also won 2nd place in the national BEA Festival of Media Arts for a short script called “The Blind Date,” which was made into a short film. Quintana used his BlueCat Finalist screenplay as his thesis project.

Guy McDouall

Random Acts of Violence • Joplin (2012)

Since winning The Joplin, Guy McDouall’s script is under option and in development with support from the New Zealand Film Commission and Academy and BAFTA award-winning filmmaker Christian Rivers is attached to direct. McDouall gained representation with Lee Stobby Entertainment in Hollywood and wrote a short film called “Feeder” that is playing at several film festivals, including Fantasia.

Zeke Farrow

Untitled Sarah Palin Sex Doll Project • Finalist (2012)

Zeke Farrow’s Finalist screenplay Fuck Facebook (Untitled Sarah Palin Sex Doll Project) won the Gold Prize in Comedy in the Page Screenplay Awards and has a director/producer attached. Since becoming a Finalist, Farrow signed with Management 360 and won the Peabody Award for Best Kept Secret, a documentary he wrote and co-produced. Best Kept Secret currently has a 100% rating on RottenTomatoes and Metacritic and is the #1 film on all of Netflix. Farrow also co-wrote and produced the new feature Before the Sun Explodes with director Debra Eisenstadt, which is looking forward to a festival run in 2016, and executive-produced Gayby, which currently streams on Netflix.

Steve Ruttley

Tilford • Cordelia (2011)

Since winning The Cordelia, Steve Ruttley’s screenplay (now retitled “The Last Witness”) was optioned by Poisson Rouge Pictures in London. He’s currently a finalist in The 2011 Page International Screenwriting Awards

Ian Simpson

Below the Waist • Grand Prize (2010)

Ian Simpson has recently been signed by Paradigm Agency.

“Having chosen to sign with Paradigm in 2012, a significant milestone on the ‘road’ that got me to this place is my experience with BlueCat in 2010. Regardless of the fact that I won the competition that year, my work with Gordy and the dedication of the BlueCat team have proven invaluable to me ever since. This is not just a ‘competition’; it is an array of resources designed to create better screenwriters. I am certainly humbled by BlueCat in this regard, as it has undoubtedly bettered me as a writer.”

Teresa Lo

The Physicist • Finalist (2010)

Since becoming a Finalist, Teresa Lo published Hell’s Game and The Red Lantern Scandals, both of which were Amazon bestsellers, and created viral videos for POPSUGAR, the number one female millennial website. Currently, Lo runs a blog about writing called The Daily T.Lo and is Head of Development for Haimes Productions, a production company created by Marc Haimes (Men in Black, Collateral, Disturbia).

Jerry Mahoney

Gladly McGee and the Damn Retarded F***** • Grand Prize (2009)

Since winning BlueCat, Jerry was selected for the Writers Guild of America’s Writer Access Project for his Sarah Silverman Program spec script, “Sarah’s Crack Baby”. He completed a stage play, Ditto, which was chosen for the Green Beetle Productions reading series. He recently signed with a book agent at DeFiore and Company, New York, and is currently shopping his memoir Where Do Gaybies Come From?, about how he and his partner became the dads of twins. He has also changed a lot of diapers. You can follow him on Twitter at @WhyJerryWhy.

Carlos de la Garza

Two Rabbits • Finalist (2009)

Carlos and Mario have been putting together a production plan for Two Rabbits. The duo plans on co-directing the film. Currently working with a line producer to develop a budget, Carlos and Mario have begun the storyboarding process. They plan on approaching potential investors sometime in the next year. Additionally Mario has also been re-writing his script for a historical drama.

Mario De La Garza

Two Rabbits • Finalist (2009)

Carlos and Mario have been putting together a production plan for Two Rabbits. The duo plans on co-directing the film. Currently working with a line producer to develop a budget, Carlos and Mario have begun the storyboarding process. They plan on approaching potential investors sometime in the next year. Additionally Mario has also been re-writing his script for a historical drama.

Lonas Taylor

Honky's Ladder • Finalist (2009)

After being named a finalist in 2009, Lonas has written another screenplay, which placed in the top 10% of the 4,400 entries in the 2010 Austin Heart of Screenplay Contest. The script also made the semi-finals of the 2010 Scriptoid Screenplay Contest. Additionally, Lonas has written several short stories. Most recently, while starting another screenplay, Lonas has started to teach a film study class at New London Adult Education in New London, Connecticut.

Chad Brian

Death Rattle • Finalist (2009)

Timo E. Peltonen

The Piano Tuner • Grand Prize (2008)

After winning the 2008 competition, The Piano Tuner was optioned by Cobblestone Films. Timo still lives in Hyvinkää, Finland, 30 miles north of Helsinki, with his wife and two daughters. He writes freelance for the television pages of Helsingin Sanomat (about 1 million readers). He also reviews films, documentaries and television series. He is currently working on his next script and putting together an outline for a television series of his own.

Maria Mathis

Past Mistakes • Finalist (2008)

Maria’s latest script, The Fire Walker, is currently being shopped. Maria has also started a new script-a semi-autobiographical story-about a multi-racial young woman searching for family members on a cross-country trip.

Suzanne Griffin

The Italian Lover • Finalist (2008)

With an MFA from NYU’s Graduate Institute of Film and Television, Suzanne is a two-time Nicholl Fellowship semi-finalist and winner of the Independent Feature Project’s Herbert Beigel Screenplay Award. In February of 2009, Suzanne directed a staged reading of the first act of her screenplay The Sleeping House. She has recently completed a new romantic comedy entitled The Way of the World. Suzanne’s screenplays Cleanand Blood and Dreams were both quarterfinalists in the 2009 Blue Cat competition. Blood and Dreamsearned a semi-finalist nod in the 2010 BlueCat competition. You can read more about Suzanne on herwebsite.

Jeff Seymann Gilbert

El Flaco • Finalist (2008)

Jeff’s script is currently under option, with two producers attached. They are currently seeking independent financing. The script earned Jeff the Fellowship in Screenwriting from the New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA), and was awarded the Geri Ashur Grant from the NYFA for being the most outstanding screenplay amongst their fellows. The script also earned the Marta Munoz Award from the Latino Screenwriting Competition and was a finalist in the Phoenix Film Festival’s screenplay competition. Jeff has also earned Film Independent’s (FIND) fellowship for writing, directing and producing, meaning that the project was invited to their writer’s lab, director’s lab and producer’s lab. El Flaco was also one of 10 projects invited to the Los Angeles Film Festival’s Fast Track program. Visit Jeff’s website here.

Michael J. Elsey

The Language of Leaves • Finalist (2008)

After placing as a finalist in 2008, and a quarter-finalist in 2009 (And Now for My Next Trick), Michael is currently the Vice President of New Media at The Great Books Foundation. He is also writing a supernatural thriller, Devil’s Ink. Michael continues to shop The Language of Leaves.

John Michael Bister

The Yellow Canary • Finalist (2008)

Post-competition, John made contact with several production companies that requested his script. He is gearing up to send his latest script, Johnny Peacoat, to many of these established connections. He’s currently working with the Production Designer and Art Director for a Warner Bros/Legendary Pictures film.

Ana Lily Amirpour

The Stones • Grand Prize (2007)

After earning top honors in the 2007 competition, Ana Lily Amirpour’s feature-length screenplay about youth culture in modern Tehran went on to participate in the 2009 Tribeca All Access program. The script also earned Ana Lily the 2009 Adrienne Shelly Fellowship before being selected for Fast Track at the 2010 Los Angeles Film Festival. In 2010 Ana Lily was invited to attend the Berlinale Talent Campus #8 in Berlin. The script is now slated for production in 2011 by Brave New Works, a production company based in Germany. Ana Lily is attached as director. Ana Lily’s other projects, the short films Six and a Half, Andronica 8 and Ketab have also gone on to great success. Six and a Half was an official selection at the 2009 Slamdance Film Festival, won a Golden Ace Award at the Las Vegas International Film Festival, and competed for Best Short Film at the 2009 Milan International Film Festival. Andronica 8 won the 2009 Dini Ostrov Reel Spirit Award in screenwriting awarded each year to outstanding writers in comedy, by the UCLA graduate division donor awards. Ketab was screened during the Tribeca Film Festival in April 2010 as part of a special presentation of The Stones. Visit Ana Lily’s website here.

Vicki Speegle

Loved Ones • Finalist (2007)

After the 2007 competition, Loved Ones was selected to be read at BlueCat’s “Screenplay Live” at the 2008 Rochester Film Festival. The script was later optioned by Babcock Jedeikin Productions and producer Jessica Schatz (“Little Chenier”). And it was recently a semi-finalist for Best Screenplay on Amazon Studios. Vicki is currently in post-production on a documentary feature titled Let Your mercies come also to me… “It’s a project that’s very dear to my heart since it’s about my mother – the unusual life she led as a gay ordained minister and her struggle with Alzheimer’s; how that affected her faith.” The project will have promotional support from GLAAD. Since Bluecat, Vicki’s works have gone on to garner several awards. Her script Dearest was a finalist for the Sundance Screenwriters Lab and her pilot for an original television drama, The Wakes of Wilbur Poe, was a semi-finalist in Slamdance and NexTV. Speegle was the finalist for the first annual Tangerine Fellowship to the Stowe Story Labs and is self-publishing her first children’s book on Amazon, called WHAT DO TREES THINK?

Irin Evers

Every time I go to Staten Island something bad happens... • Finalist (2007)

Irin Evers’ scripts have won or placed in 38 major screenplay contests for 82 awards, including the Nicholl Fellowships, the Sundance Lab and the Austin Film Festival. His films have won five awards and screened numerous festivals. Irin recently optioned Every time I go to Staten Island something bad happens… to ChipAway Productions with Don Cato set to direct. Production is planned for March 2011. For more information on Irin’s work, please visit his website here.

Gail Mackenzie-Smith

Another You • Finalist (2006)

Following her success in the competition, Gail’s script earned a number of reads. She optioned two other scripts, and then decided to turn Another You into a novel. After agents were interested, she searched for a publisher. Currently, Gail has turned back to screenwriting, with plans for a historical drama.

Eric Humble

Hush • Finalist (2006)

Since the 2006 competition, Eric has been writing freelance fiction, while maintaining his longtime position as a scheduling reporter for Gemstar-TV Guide. He is writing two screenplays at the moment, a comedy-thriller and a horror film. Eric also continues to do write and act with Philadelphia-area comedy troupe The Action Section.

Rick Stempson

Balls Out: Gary the Tennis Coach • Grand Prize (2005)

Andy and Rick’s winning script, Balls Out: Gary the Tennis Coach, was produced and released by Sony in early 2008, starring Sean William Scott. The duo’s second produced screenplay, The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard, was released in 2009. The film was directed by Neal Brennan and starred Jeremy Piven.

Andy Stock

Balls Out: Gary the Tennis Coach • Grand Prize (2005)

Andy and Rick’s winning script, Balls Out: Gary the Tennis Coach, was produced and released by Sony in early 2008, starring Sean William Scott. The duo’s second produced screenplay, The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard, was released in 2009. The film was directed by Neal Brennan and starred Jeremy Piven.

Aaron Guzikowski

Panacea • Finalist (2005)

After being named a Finalist in 2005, Aaron signed with Endeavor with his screenplay, Prisoners. This film is now in pre-production with Warner Brothers and is set for 2014. Contraband was produced in 2012 with Universal Pictures- starring Mark Wahlberg and Baltasar Kormákur directing the remake of the acclaimed Icelandic thriller, Reykjavic-Rotterdam. For more information on Aaron, visit his IMDB page here.

Jim Beggarly

Donnie's Brother • Finalist (2005)

Since becoming a Finalist, Jim Beggarly finished two films: Free Samples and The Kitchen. Beggarly co-wrote A Country Called Home with director Anna Axster, which just premiered in the LA Film Festival starring Imogen Poots, Mackenzie Davis, and Mary McCormack. Beggarly also co-wrote A Year and Change with director Stephen Suettinger. The film, which just premiered at the Dancing with Films festival, stars Bryan Greenberg, T.R. Knight, and Marshall Allman.

Ryan David Jahn

The Break-In • Finalist (2005)

Following his success with The Break-In, Ryan has released two novels.Acts of Violence was released in 2009. The Crime Writers’ Association awarded the novel their “John Creasey New Blood Dagger” award for the novel. Ryan’s second book, Low Life, which was based on his script The Break-In, was released in July of 2010. Plans for a third novel, The Dispatcher, were recently announced. Visit Ryan’s site here.

Justin Thomas

Man in the Rearview Mirror • Grand Prize (2004)

The Pagana/Thomas duo did not slow down after taking home the grand prize in 2004. The pair’s script went on to become a 2004 Nicholl Fellowship semi-finalist, and was named winner of the 2006 Austin Film Festival Heart of Film Screenplay Competition. The film is now under option, with Peter Bogdanovich attached to direct.

Andy Pagana

Man in the Rearview Mirror • Grand Prize (2004)

The Pagana/Thomas duo did not slow down after taking home the grand prize in 2004. The pair’s scriptwent on to become a 2004 Nicholl Fellowship semi-finalist, and was named winner of the 2006 Austin Film Festival Heart of Film Screenplay Competition. The film is now under option, with Peter Bogdanovich attached to direct. Andy currently has a full slate of projects including: a children’s show called The Nonsense Box on the Kabillion on-demand network; a Nonsense Box album on iTunes; a show called Slangman’s World(which introduces young children to foreign languages) that can be seen in 175 countries around the world; is co-founder of a full-service production company called Cosmic Toast Studios; and has a movie review show (Schwartzy and Pagana Amazing Motion Picture Review Show) on YouTube which was recently picked up by the LA2Day.com website.

Lance Hammer

The Imperfect Cell • Finalist (2004)

After the 2004 competition, Lance wrote, directed, edited and distributed Ballast, which premiered at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival. Lance won the Directing Award, and Ballast was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize. Ballast was also nominated for the 2009 Independent Spirit Award and Best Film at the 2008 Gotham Awards, where Lance won the Breakthrough Director Award.

Allan Tijamo

Sparkle La Rue • Finalist (2004)

A year after being named a BlueCat finalist, Allan won a literary prize in the Philippines called the Palanca Award for his screenplay Blue Moon, a story about a dying old man who goes on the road searching for his first love. A judge for the prize, a director, later produced the script. The film earned awards for Best Picture, Director and Screenplay at the 2006 Film Academy of the Philippines (FAP) Awards (the country’s version of the Oscars). The film also won a number of other Best Picture and Screenplay awards from other award-giving bodies. Following the film’s success, Allan was given five other writing assignments from the same studio. One script, My Kuya’s Wedding (My Brother’s Wedding) was made into a movie. Allan has spent the last couple of years writing specs for submission to screenwriting contests and to agents in Hollywood. For more information on Allan’s projects, visit his IMDB page here.

Kathy Garcia

Georgie • Finalist (2004)

Kathy’s script Georgie garnered several other competition awards, including Fade In Magazine’s grand prize, a quarterfinalist nod in the Nicholl Fellowships, and won Screenplay Live at the Rochester Film Festival. Since the script’s success with BlueCat in 2004, it has been optioned by Middlechild Productions with the director Nisha Ganatra attached to direct, (whose previous projects include the romantic comedy Cake, and Chutney Popcorn). The script is currently going out to talent. With Georgie, Kathy signed with the management company Anonymous Content. In 2008, her original script, The Kingdom, was a semi-finalist in the Austin Film Festival’s Screenplay Competition, and was selected for the Austin Film Festival’s Writer’s Ranch screenplay lab in Austin. She is currently at work on her first novel.

Jason Wilder Konschak

Blaring Static • Finalist (2003)

Following his success with Blaring Static, Jason moved to Los Angeles in 2005. After getting one screenplay under option, his web series Hell Froze Over was selected for competition at the prestigious New York Television Festival, where it won the Outside the Box Award. His production company,Misplaced Planet, continues to make popular, award-winning shorts and web content.

Gregory Synstelien

Zachary's Love • Finalist (2002)

Zachary’s Love was Gregory’s first screenplay. Since placing as a finalist, Gregory has had three agents, and saw two production companies and one director attached to the script. He has completed three other scripts: Frag a Frog, Wingnut Fantasies and Punkin Time. He continues to write while being a professional photographer. For samples of Gregory’s work, view his portfolio.

Tony Urgo

The Wizard Joe • Finalist (2000)

A rewritten version of The Wizard Joe placed third in the Final Draft Script contest in 2007. In the last few years Tony has entered the production and post-production fields, writing and directing a short film, and editing shorts, documentaries and a feature. For more updates, visit Tony’s IMDB page.

Stu Woolley

Roaches 666 • Finalist (2000)

After 25 years of script work, which included some episodic television assignments/credits, numerous un-produced screenplays and a trio of top-four script contest finishes, Stu took a hiatus in 2005 and returned to his first creative love, songwriting. Stu’s script file remains active, including Roaches 666;Ghost High, a teen/family spook drama; John Brown: American Terrorist, a (co-written) revision of the life and death of the human trigger of the Civil War; and Benni Barnie’s Girlworld, a cartoon series for girls.